“Hey Chat, please summarize this meeting.” 

Harmless, right? (And for this scenario, let’s assume it’s on the company’s secure AI bot.) 

“Hey Chat, what’s the weather like in Tampa in June?” 

Still harmless. 

“Hey Chat, I’m an engineer with 10 years of experience living in Indiana. My current salary is $100,000, and my performance review is coming up. What should I ask for in terms of a raise?” 

Now we’re getting into more sensitive territory. “Harmful” may not be the perfect word, but AI-generated responses aren’t always accurate—and are you ready for an employee or candidate to walk in and say, “According to ChatGPT, I should be making X”? It’s okay if the answer is “not yet,” but it won’t stay that way for long. 

As employees and employers learn to weave AI into their personal and professional lives, people leaders must be ready to discuss pay with current and prospective employees who may come armed with unsolicited, AI-generated insights and opinions. To help you prepare, here are some sample responses to guide your organization as you navigate this uncharted territory.

We don’t use artificial intelligence to make pay decisions. This may sound like a crass reply, but it is a valid and straightforward response if it is in fact true for your organization. Having a clear and definitive answer is the best place to start; otherwise, the conversation will enter what feels like an endless black hole. 

Here is why we don’t currently use artificial intelligence to make pay decisions. Today, using AI to make pay decisions is challenging because it is difficult to defend and verify information. Data is often inconsistent and seemingly inaccurate. Contributing factors may include: 

Here is how we expect to use artificial intelligence to help inform pay decisions in the future. If you use or plan to use AI as you evaluate and administer your pay programs, be prepared to answer how, why, and when. Illustrative examples may be: 

AI is here, and it’s not going away. But that doesn’t mean you have to rely on it for your pay decisions. Instead, the focus should shift to building trust. When we think back to a study by Gartner showing that only 40 percent of employees felt their pay was fair, the root issue isn’t AI—it’s a lack of trust in compensation and total rewards programs.   

Building trust in the areas of compensation and rewards programs is a powerful way to enhance employee engagement and create a more transparent culture. Although empowering at times, the abundance of data available to employees—now more than ever—can increase questions and confusion if employers do not lead the conversation.  

Our recommendation? Don’t shy away from the topic; instead be at the forefront. 

Pay conversations are rarely black and white, and employers need to be ready to respond to not just the market data but the philosophical, strategic, and qualitative factors that drive pay decisions. These are the factors that AI is unable to contemplate at this time, and they’re how you build employee confidence and a foundation for trust.  

Many best practices in the emerging area of AI in compensation resemble guidance related to crowd-sourced data sites discussed in this blog about online compensation data. Having a defined and consistent process that is tied to an overall total rewards philosophy is the best way to navigate compensation conversations in the era of artificial intelligence.  

Will AI be the preferred source for compensation data in the future? Probably. Do you want your company to use AI to determine your compensation today? Probably not.